Day 132: Think of the Parisians

Today's coverage is dominated by news that Trump is "planning" on pulling out of the Paris accords. Axios reported early today that the decision was made. Later, the NY Times reported that Trump was "planning" on pulling out. A further report from Bloomberg suggested that a decision had actually not been made yet. Here's my take.

• First, here's the Bloomberg article, which summarizes the present situation. Highlights from the article: Leaving the Paris accords would be a significant decision that puts the US at odds with essentially the rest of the world, joining only Syria and Nicaragua as being on the outside. Leaving has essentially no political or economic benefit, but significant peril on both regards, particularly with respect to essentially every other nation in the world. Furthermore, it gives rise to significant environmental danger. I'm not going to argue about the stupidity of neglecting climate change here. Here's my favorite bit: "Several of the people familiar with the deliberations cautioned that the decision won’t be final until it is announced. Trump often changes his mind repeatedly when considering major decisions." Great. Just great. We have a fucking idiot in charge who can't listen to reasoned arguments and vacillates hopelessly.
• Even worse, he has no scientific advisors. He's literally taking his cues on this from Bannon and Pruitt.
• I claimed yesterday that Trump is essentially working for Putin. Here's further evidence in the context of withdrawing from the Paris agreement.
• But never fear! America is God's country, and He will save us if climate change happens! Or so a Republican congressman claims. Why the fuck are these lunatics in charge?

The worst part will be that in abdicating the leadership role, the rest of the world is far less likely to fall in line. America first? If Trump follows this course of action, it will be America last in the very near future.

In other news:

• We have a bunch of congressional subpoenas in the Russian investigations.
• Comey will be publicly testifying before the Senate. This is a good thing, but I'm not expecting a whole lot out of it.
• We have a list of ethics waivers provided by the White house. Despite Trump campaigning on tightening up lobbyist rules, he's relaxed them and provided more than five times the number of such waivers than the previous administration.
• Trump is reportedly planning on rolling back relations with Cuba. Is there nothing he doesn't want his grubby hands to tarnish?
• Ice is literally deporting undocumented immigrant grandmothers with clean records who have lived in the country for decades. Here's a story of one such person who has sought sanctuary in a church to avoid deportation.

In case you're curious, here's a list of all the actions the administration has taken to fuck the environment to make rich white men even richer. (Warning: this list is rage-inducing.)

Day 131: Waiting for Godot

Lots of talk today, but again, not much action. Oh, and plenty of people being dicks. There's a few proposals and drafts floating around. Most of them are downright awful, and it feels like I'm waiting for the inevitable. Here's what I think was worth reading today (admittedly, a small smattering of the drivel that's out there).

• Trump's communication director is leaving the White House. Ostensibly, he resigned, but more likely he was asked to leave. Rumors of an overhaul have been swirling for a while now. Perhaps it's started?
• Almost half of Trump's twitter followers are fake or bots. Apparently 3 million were added in the past few days... Is something about to happen?
• Trump has doubled down on his criticisms of Germany. This author makes a strong point that it's hard to believe Trump isn't working for the benefit of Russia.

Day 130: Memorial Day

Plenty of news pieces related to the hot water Kushner finds himself in, with old evidence being re-evaluated in a new light. I didn't see anything actually new, however, so I'm saving you the uninteresting reading. There is also plenty of smoke coming from the administration itself on the issue. Otherwise, there seems to be a bunch of stuff in the works at the administration, but nothing acted upon as of yet. I guess that's what a public holiday will do.

Also, you know you've fucked up when Germany says that they can no longer rely on the US to uphold its obligations, and the German opposition leader's response is to say that Trump's treatment of Merkel was unacceptable.

• Congressional/special investigations are ramping up, and things look dicey for the Trump campaign, which looks like it didn't preserve digital documents.
• Betsy deVos has denounced anybody who doesn't support her voucher program for private schools as a "flat-earther". Because anybody who disagrees with you must be wrong, apparently.
• Standing Rock activists against the Dakota Access Pipeline were responded to as jihadist terrorists. This article is thoroughly disturbing. In short: the gas company contracted with a shady mercenary company to deal with protestors. In turn, this shady mercenary company had the full cooperation of federal, state and local law enforcement resources across five states. I am truly disgusted.

Day 129: Respectful for Memorial Day

Aww, who am I kidding? There's no way this administration is going to change it's behavior for a day. That said, all that happened today was an administration on the defensive over Kushner, and Trump returning to twitter. Feel free to ignore political news today!

Day 128: Not so quiet

For a Saturday, today's been remarkably busy.

• Today wrapped up the G7 Summit. The combined group of leaders came to a consensus on a variety of issues. Only they often didn't include Trump. The idiot is making a fool of himself and this country on the world stage. At one point, he had obviously given up, spending the afternoon ignoring the other leaders in a meeting by not listening to the translations.
• As expected, Trump refused to commit to the Paris climate agreement. This is the US putting its head in the sand and refusing to realize that its a part of this world. I'm disgusted.
• The head of the NSA told his staff that there is damning evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Out with it already!
• The FDA has delayed a rule on calorie labels four days before it was due to go into effect nationally, causing much disruption and confusion. Isn't that the way that everything Trump does works though?
• In good news, the US has quietly increased their quotas of refugees for the year. Note that this was a decision from the State Department, not the administration per se.

Day 127: Can I have a holy shit?

Just when you thought the week was winding down quietly, we have another bombshell.

• In December, Kushner met with the Russian ambassador to request setting up a secure back channel to the Kremlin using Russian equipment. While not quite proof of collusion, it's getting really very smoky in here. Trump is having a really terrible few weeks regarding Russia, and he's not even here to take the flack for it.
• Trump's meeting with the G7 leaders is going roughly. His bluster is being ignored by European leaders, and he seems to be having a tantrum that they're not treating him like the King of the World, as he was feted in Saudi Arabia. He's been especially vicious to Germany, which for the past 40 years has had very strong ties with the US as a bulwark against Soviet imperialism. Russia has been trying for decades to drive a wedge between the US and Germany, and now Trump is doing it for them. Great.
• I missed this one a few days ago. In a bit of good news, Obama's fiduciary rule, which had been put on ice, is due to take effect in June. The department's review found no legal reason to delay its implementation further.

For some side reading, if you're interested: Trump has been obsessed with Russia since at least the 80's, and was even angling for a government Soviet posting.

Day 126: NATO Disasters

Hoo boy. Strap your seatbelts in, because this top one is a doozy.

• Trump met with NATO leaders today. He was somewhat ostracized for taking the opportunity to condemn the military spending of other NATO nations (despite having no idea how NATO works), and refusing to unequivocally state that the US would live up to its obligations. There was a photo op, and he was filmed shoving his way to the front of the crowd of world leaders. Foreign policy experts highlight the disaster of his speech, and point out how the US and EU no longer have a common stance on Russia. (Note: Article 5 is the guts of NATO, which calls all members to arms in the case of an attack. It has only been invoked once - after 9/11 - and Trump is refusing to uphold the US commitment to it.)
• A Federal appeals court upheld the hold on Trump's Muslim ban, and the Department of Justice has vowed Supreme Court action. The judgement was very pointed in its criticism of the administration. The opening paragraph of the judgement is a thing of beauty: The executive order "in text speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination".
• Confirmation that Kushner is now a focus of the FBI investigation. I eagerly await the final straw in this investigation.
• Remember Manafort? Apparently he was helping out with the Trump transition team months after resigning from the campaign. This guy never ceases being shady.
• Apparently Reince Priebus is worried about what could come out in Comey's memos. This strongly suggests that he was involved in borderline illegal activities too, probably something along the lines of attempting to pressure Comey in some way regarding the FBI investigation. More obstruction of justice. This whole administration needs to go.
• In a truly mindblowing exchange, Betsy deVos couldn't name a single situation in which she thought students should be protected from discrimination. This is your education secretary.
• Sessions is in hot water again for not disclosing meetings with foreign officials to the DoJ for his security clearance.
• Senate Republicans are looking to change the rules again. After using a technique to block Obama appointments, they're hoping to invalidate the technique so that Democrats can't use it. Disgusting.

Days 124 and 125: Budget and a CBO score

Apologies for the no-show yesterday! We're back today though, with a double-dose of Trumpian fuckery!

• The administration put forth a complete budget. Here's an overview of how it would impact various parts of government. Cliff notes version: Trillions saved in cuts to the poor! Back to budget surplus in 10 years! (Note: Assumes unrealistic economic growth!) Huge tax cuts for the rich! "Being compassionate means being compassionate to people who pay taxes!" I am without words.
• Apparently the administration is incompetent, double-counting $2 trillion in income in the budget. They then doubled down and saying it was done on purpose.
• The budget has been touted for including paid maternity leave. The only problem is that as written, their scheme doesn't work.
• If you don't read anything else about the budget, read this.
• That Russian scandal keeps on appearing, with leaks that Russians were overheard by intelligence agencies discussing how to influence Manafort and Flynn.
• The Republican Healthcare proposal has been scored by the CBO, and it's a doozy. 23 million more uninsured within a decade, $119 billion in savings (due to cutting taxes on the rich), and huge increases in premiums to anybody who is not young and healthy.
• Former CIA Chief Brennan spoke with the House Intelligence Committee, and gave some more details on what they observed Russia getting up to. The testimony lends great credence to the necessity of proper investigations into Russian collusion with the Trump administration. (Another very readable article)
• Trump met with the Pope. The Pope did not look happy. Otherwise, I haven't seen anything significant regarding this story.
• Trump is lawyering up with outside counsel to respond to the Russian allegations. Of course, in doing so, he has created a new conflict of interest...
• The Washington Post got their hands on a transcript of Trump's call with Philippine President Duterte from April. Back then, we were outraged that an invitation to visit was extended to the autocrat. The transcript is even worse - praising extrajudicial killings, disclosing the secret locations of nuclear submarines, and more. The Pentagon is apparently incensed.
• Ben Carson, who you might remember is heading up the Housing and Urban Development portfolio, just called poverty a "state of mind". Give me a fucking break. This guy is completely unfit for his position.
• And just to assure you that the world is safe under Poptart Trump, a US warship has been sent to undertake a "freedom of navigation operation" in the vicinity of China's highly-contested islands in the South China Sea. China is unlikely to be happy.

And finally, to make you feel really good, this is an in-depth report on Jared Kushner's slum-lord company. The most relevant sentence: "there is a clear pattern of Kushner Companies’ pursuing tenants over virtually any unpaid rent or broken lease — even in the numerous cases where the facts appear to be on the tenants’ side". Pursuing people who completely lack the means to fight back against incorrect legal documents is utterly vile

Day 123: More games in the Middle East

Trump's visit to the Middle East isn't going as badly as expected. Again, however, he has only been set the lowest of bars to pass.

• Here's a good overview of the weirder aspects of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia.
• Trump visited the "Western Wall" today. I wonder why no US President has ever visited it before? Perhaps because they were working hard not to strain Israeli-Palestinian relations?
• There was also this little issue where he just insulted everybody in the room... 
• Meanwhile, his Commerce Secretary said that he hadn't seen any protestors in Saudi Arabia, so obviously everybody loves Trump. Evidently, he was ignorant of the fact that being arrested for protesting in Saudi Arabia leads to a death sentence, one of the many human rights violations that the Trump administration is conveniently ignoring.
• Flynn is pleading the fifth in response to congressional subpoenas. I can understand not wanting to incriminate yourself, but damn you look incredibly shady in doing so.
• Trump made some wildly inappropriate requests to his intelligence chiefs to push back against the Russia probe. This is beyond his request to Comey. Wow.
• Taking another notch on the authoritarian totem pole, Trump asked Comey to throw reporters in jail. This administration will stop at nothing.
• The Office of Government Ethics has lambasted the Trump administration over their refusal to supply copies of ethics waivers. Despite having promised to drain the swamp and reduce the influence of lobbyists, the Trump team is taking them on at an unprecedented rate with confidential ethics waivers. Shady as hell.
• The Dodd-Frank banking regulations have essentially been gutted in all but name. This article suggests that we're basically back to where we were before the 2008 crisis, except that now the banks are even bigger.

Day 122: Diplomacy

So, Turnip is off in Israel now, and has apparently been giving some public speeches. The global consensus seems to be "could've been worse", but the bar was already set way, way, way down. I haven't found any analyses that I like yet (it is Sunday after all), so go back outside and enjoy the nice weather. Back tomorrow with news!

Day 121: Saudi Arabia

Trump is presently in Saudi Arabia. A "$110 billion deal" was apparently signed, but details are scant. Apparently they're putting on a warm welcome for Trump and his entourage. I haven't seen any other news worth reading, so go out and enjoy the warm weather!

Day 120: Under the microscope

So, Trump is off to Saudi Arabia. What are the chances he'll stay on script? I give it about a 0% chance.

• The whole scandalous mess with the administration is kind of overwhelming. More information continues to come out in dribs and drabs. I recommend Shakesville's analysis.
• One drib is that Trump's explanation to the Russians about firing Comey was that he was a "nut job", and that firing him relieved pressure on the administration. That sounds like pandering, projection and wishful thinking.
• And today's drab is that the FBI's investigation includes a current senior figure in the administration (rumored to be Kushner). Both the drib and drab were published moments apart, just after Air Force One took off for the Middle East.
• Pence continues to be a fucking liar. Here's the proof. (Perhaps I'm too harsh. He might also just be grossly incompetent. But apparently that gets you elected as President nowadays...)

Meanwhile...

• The CDC has nearly 700 vacancies because of Trump's hiring freeze. Great. Just great. 
• Because Trump and Republican can't get their facts/acts/stories straight, insurers around the nation are planning premium hikes for Obamacare marketplaces. Just what we need.
• Nonprofit organizations who provide lawyers for deportation cases are under attack from Session's Department of Justice, who have provided them with a cease and desist letter. This is shockingly perverse, and just what I'd expect from Sessions.

I'm sorry I don't have any good news today. Have a great weekend!

Day 119: Disheartening

Things continued to get worse for the administration today.

• Reuters reports that the Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed discussions with high-ranking Russians. One or two would be careless. This is a damned pattern. Also contained in this article is the following damning sentence: "Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy".
• Flynn was actively acting as a Turkish agent while in the Trump administration. Well what did you expect, Trump?
• Republicans continue to have their head in the sand over whether or not Trump is acting dangerously, and blocked a Democrat bill to form an independent investigation into this whole mess. A courageous lot, they are not.
• Trump still thinks Flynn is innocent, and once he's exonerated, wants him back in the administration. Oh my. I have no words.
• Pence continues to be a fucking liar.

In non-scandal news:

• Trump has initiated discussions on NAFTA, triggering a clause in the agreement. To this I say: good luck Canada and Mexico. 
• The FCC has begun the process of dismantling net neutrality. Fuck.

Plenty of other machinations happening, but as far as I can tell, these are the main actions. I'm looking forward to the weekend, just so we can have a respite from the firehose of bad news.

Day 118: Special Counsel

So much scandal news today. Buckle yourself in!

• The big news of today: Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has named a Special Counsel to investigate the Russian affair. About time. The counsel is the previous FBI director (before Comey). By all accounts, he's a good choice.
• You know you've screwed up when Mitch McConnell calls for Comey's testimony. The guy has otherwise thought that Trump can do no wrong.
• The Trump team knew that Flynn was under investigation before they hired him. I'm beginning to think that Trump is colorblind, because he can't see freaking red flags!
• Another huge scandal hit tonight, courtesy of the Washington Post. Republican leaders were speculating in June last year that Trump was on Putin's payroll. The conversation was sworn to secrecy, but somehow the Washington Post obtained audio recordings. This article is important reading.

In other terrifying news:

• The administration is living up to its responsibilities on the Iran nuclear deal.
• I missed this yesterday. Trump hosted an autocrat at the White house. Yup, that would be the current tyrant of Turkey. Did Trump raise the concept of human rights violations in Turkey? I'm not sure he even knows that "human rights" are.
• Trump has decided not to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Good choice. I congratulate all the staffers who worked hard to convince him of this.
• The federal education budget slashes $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives. This is mind-boggling, and largely driven by DeVos pushing the idea of "school choice". If you aren't familiar with "school choice", here's a deep dive into how the initiative played out in the conservative testbed of Indiana (spoiler: very badly - it essentially kills public education).
• Trump is trying to set up an "Arab NATO". What could possibly go wrong with one of the largest arms deals in history?

Day 117: But her emails!

I can barely keep up with the shit that this administration is flinging. Today is just one scandal piled on top of another.

• We begin with an analysis of Trump's diplomatic faux pas with a really good article that cuts through misconceptions to state what the President is and isn't allowed to do, and how his latest blunder fits into the scheme of things. I like that they also cut through the carefully worded statements by various officials and read between the lines.
• Of course, the White house attempted to spin things last night (including claims that Trump is too stupid to know any intelligence to give away). But then Trump came out swinging this morning, claiming he had the right to do what he did. Afterwards, his administration was still attempting to claim he hadn't. (Fun note: Trump claims he can release whatever classified information he likes, but can't release his tax returns because of an "audit"?)
• Where are the Republicans who were clamoring to "lock her up" when Clinton did far less than what Trump has just done?
• The media is reporting that the source of the intelligence was Israel. I'm sure they're really pleased, and are going to fully cooperate with future requests for intelligence from the US. Israel appears to be pretty pissed.
• Funny that. Remember back in January how the US intelligence agencies warned Israel not to share intelligence, because Trump was likely compromised?

And then the day close with this revelation: a memo from Comey claims that Trump pressured him to shut down an FBI investigation into Flynn. Comey was apparently documenting everything he found suspicious, and I've read that an FBI agent’s notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations. Uncharacteristically, even Chaffetz wants a piece of this pie.

Republicans are being willfully ignorant and not responding to the fact that the President is literally destroying this country. I am absolutely disgusted. The system of checks and balances is literally failing. Republicans cannot in good conscience continue to support Trump, and I hope that they pay for it with their jobs.

Day 116: Showing Off Secrets

Today we learned that Trump is proud of having people tell him secrets, so much so that he feels the need to brag about knowing secrets.

• The bombshell: Trump allegedly shared top secret material (that the US has not shared with allies) with the Russian ambassador last week. As the President, he is permitted to do so, but it would be incredibly foolish. The administration is presently in crisis mode trying to cover its ass, while Republicans are screaming "Can we just have a single day without a crisis?!"
• How does Trump get his fake news? Why, his staff print it out for him off the internet, of course! The President is incapable of browsing a website by himself.
• This one might slip under the radar, so even though it's not yet in place, I'm putting it here: Trump to massively expand the already expanded funding restrictions for overseas aid programs regarding family planning and abortion. This one has Pence's fingerprints all over it. They don't care what impact this has on the rest of the world, if only they can demand their religious perspectives be upheld by those who suffer. Absolutely disgusting.
• Something about secretly recording conversations in the White house. Apparently it worked well for Nixon.

Day 115: Happy Mother's Day

Nothing happened today! Go outside, see the flowers, breathe in the fresh air!

Day 114: Speeches

Trump gave a self-congratulatory commencement speech at Liberty University today (insofar as I know, the only university in the country to support him). It's not worth reading about. At all.

• Trump's pick for top USDA Scientist is not a scientist, has never taken a science course, never published a science paper, and never done anything with science. But he's a businessman, so everything is ok? (Hint: everything is not ok)
• Earlier this week, Trump nominated 10 far-right judges to various courts. Because Republicans refused to even consider any nominations Obama sent them, Trump has a significant number of positions to fill in the courts. It's really disheartening to see positions like judges being so strongly politicized by the senate literally refusing to do it's job, only to have reasonable people be replaced by radicals. The blood is on your hands, Mitch McConnell.

Day 113: Unhinged

Warning: Do not read Trump's tweets from today. Each tweet will decrease your IQ by an average of 5 points.

• Trump was seriously unhinged this morning on twitter, threatening to cancel White house press conferences, and insinuating blackmail from recorded conversations with Comey. Spicer then had to defend him later on. The entire thing was bizarre. Some of the committees investigating Trump have now requested those recordings, because why not?
• Trump used a sneaky backdoor trick to bypass the senate confirmation proceedings for putting somebody in charge of the Office of the Comptroller. Expect oversight of Wall St to become nonexistent under this guy.
• Sessions continues ramping up his war on drugs, ordering prosecutors to seek the maximum possible charges, particularly in drug cases. The 90's want their failed policy back, Sessions.
• The changes in immigration policy have had a silencing effect on Hispanics reporting violent crime. Completely foreseeable, and utterly despicable.
• Trump's lawyers claim that his tax returns from the past ten years show no income from Russian sources, except for the exceptions. Of course, no tax returns were released, so independent scrutiny is impossible.
• The EPA has given permission for a mining company to seek permits to destroy Alaskan fisheries. The mining company wants a "fairer process" than the Obama administration was willing to give them. Grr.
• Update from yesterday: the voter fraud investigation was established through an executive order. It remains an atrocious enterprise.

Day 112: Spinning Apart

News continues to be dominated by Comey's dismissal. It's become evident that the White house can't get its story straight, and today Trump went and blew the whole thing.

• Comey was slated to present to the Senate Intelligence Committee today. The acting head of the FBI presented instead, and basically contradicted everything the White house said.
• With his story coming apart, Trump just came right out and said that everything was a lie, and he "was going to fire Comey". Worse, he said he wanted to do it to wrap up this Russia investigation. I believe that is called an obstruction of justice.
• Apparently disgruntled by his treatment by Trump over the issue, Deputy Attorney General has sought a meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Essentially, the White house has just told us that we can't trust a damn thing they say. But I guess we knew that already.

In other news:

• Russian photographers, by standard protocol, should not have been in the Oval Office yesterday. The White house explained the breach in security by saying "They tricked us!" Oh my. Poor Trump, tricked by the Russians.
• Trump has started on his (nonexistent) election fraud panel, by picking a voter ID advocate to lead it. Kobach is strongly into voter suppression, and is all around bad news.
• If you wanted to know how the administration is treating disaster relief, look at North Carolina, who have received less than 1% of their request to the federal government after Hurricane Matthew. This article is really quite terrifying. I'm not sure why it hasn't received more attention.
• Trump talked economics with the Economist. As expected, he made a fool out of himself.
• Trump signed a new executive order today, this time on cybersecurity. I honestly don't know enough to comment on this order, and direct you to the article. (Full text)

Day 111: Fallout

So, basically everybody criticized Trump for firing Comey today. You should be angry too. This smacks of authoritarianism.

• More fuel for the fire: Comey had asked for extra resources for the Russia investigation. From the person who then wrote a memorandum rationalizing Trump firing him. Note that multiple sources have confirmed this story, while the Department of Justice has denied it. Why is the DoJ lying?
• Staffers at the White house point out that Trump was really frustrated by Comey over a few minor things, and Trump claims he honestly thought that everybody would be happy.
• The White house even claimed that Comey committed "atrocities". Wow. And this was after being helped by the guy. Remember how they didn't want to "smear a good man" regarding Flynn? This is completely bizarre, and most rationally explained by an administration out of control.
• Basically everybody pointed out that Trump's justification was terrible, and a number of people asked how much crap we're going to put up with before we revolt.
• You know you've fucked up when Chaffetz calls for an investigation into Comey's treatment.

In other news:

• The day after firing Comey (ie, today), Trump met with the top Russian diplomats. US Press was not allowed in, but Russian press was. Could the optics be any worse? Why, yes they could! He also met with Henry Kissinger!
• The Senate has formally subpoenaed Flynn in their Russian probe. About time.
• A reporter has been arrested for asking questions of the administration, in particular, Health Secretary Price. Let me stress: a democratic nation does not arrest reporters doing their job. A strong, independent press is vital to the health of a democracy.
• Remember the Dakota Access Pipeline, which Trump pushed through? It's not operation yet, and it's already had an oil spill.
• Some good news: the Senate rejected (barely! 49-51) a measure to overturn an Obama regulation on methane emissions. Note that the Congressional Review Act, the tool that Republicans are using to push all these through, has a timeframe it has to be used within. I thought it was 60 working days. We have to be running out of those days really soon now...

Update:

• One of the reasons Trump cited for firing Comey was a memorandum from Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Attorney General. Apparently Rosenstein was furious about being scapegoated, and threatened to resign.

Day 110: Explosive

The day started strong, and ended with a bang! Buckle your seatbelts!

• Trump is weighing his options on increased military action, this time in Afghanistan, with a proposal to dramatically escalate the never-ending war there. The only positive response he's ever had to anything was bombing Syria, so why not use the tried and true method? It must be hard being that egotistical.
• Comey had a pretty bad mis-statement in his earlier testimony, and the FBI is now trying to set the record straight. Why did Anthony Weiner's laptop have thousands of Huma Abedin's emails on it? Automatic Blackberry backup, not nefarious wrongdoing.
• And now we get to the big one. Apparently Trump got annoyed with Comey. And so Comey was fired this evening. I'll just let that sink in. ... What the hell? One does not just fire the head of the FBI, particularly when the FBI is investigating you. Obvious comparisons to Nixon's Watergate purge abound. In Trump's letter, he states "It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission." I'm sorry, but that seems to be impossible, given Trump's cronyism. I now have zero faith in the FBI investigation into Russian collusion, and strengthen my calls anew to demand the appointment of an independent investigator. Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, and now James Comey. How can anybody appointed by Trump not feel pressured to support the administration?
• And the need for such an investigation is not going away, particularly when every single Republican appears to be running interference for the administration on the issue. If you've got nothing to hide, why be so elusive? Particularly if "restoring public trust and confidence" is so important to you.
• These investigations appear to be heating up, too, with the Senate committee requesting documents from the Treasury Department's criminal investigation division regarding Trump and members of his administration.
• After criticism that the Senate's healthcare committee was completely made up of old men, a woman has been temporarily added to their number. Perhaps because healthcare is important to women, or something.

Update:

More explosions. The FBI began issuing subpoenas for financial records in the Russian investigation, hours before Comey was fired. 

Day 109: Yates Testifies

The big news today was that Sally Yates had her day testifying before the Senate. Apparently it was a doozy.

• Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. From all accounts, she deftly deconstructed the administration's incompetence, and burned a few Republican senators to boot.
• Less than 48 hours after winning the election, Trump was personally warned by Obama about Michael Flynn. Didn't listen, did he?
• This is a weird one. White house staff, feeling impotent, secretly called their Canadian counterparts to convince Trudeau to talk Trump out of scrapping NAFTA. This is absolutely bizarre, and demonstrates how challenging this infant-in-chief is to keep under control.
• The EPA science board shakeup was only the start. Now the Department of the Interior has dropped 200 scientific advisory boards too. This does not bode well.

Day 108: A lifeline from France

Only two items today:

• France has elected Macron as their new President, soundly rejecting the terrifying populism of Le Pen. The world will sleep a little easier tonight, having avoided the trifecta of Brexit, Trump and Le Pen.
• This one is more disturbing though. The EPA has dismissed scientists from a scientific review board, with plans to fill the now-vacant positions with industry representatives from the polluting industry that the board is supposed to monitor. If this isn't the fox guarding the henhouse, tell me what is.

Make that three.

• I'll just leave you with this title: Interior Department Releases List of Monuments Under Review, Announces First-Ever Formal Public Comment Period for Antiquities Act Monuments

Day 107: A weekend to recover

Not much news today.

• This is a couple of days old, but the House tried to cover its ass by removing exemptions for congressmen in the health care bill. The bar is not so low that I will send praise their way for doing so little.

I have literally not found anything else worth reporting today, and the aggregators I check are also completely empty. So, instead, I will leave you with the following words of wisdom.

Today I wanted to encourage you to stop; to step away from the fray, to let someone else do the world-saving so that you can attend to yourself. Notice how tired you are. See the ways you’ve neglected relationships and sacrificed presence with people around you. Feel the depth of your grief and fatigue. Give your self permission to do nothing loud or important or heroic today. Be intentionally selfish for a few hours. (This doesn’t have to include chocolate, though it probably should.)
-John Pavlovitz

Day 106: Deep breaths

Fallout from the Republican death panel bill dominated media discussion today. Apparently news of the vote was heard internationally, as the UN sent a warning to the Trump administration that it was in danger of violating international law.

• Essentially everybody in the health care business has condemned the bill. Remind me why we have experts again? Oh, that's right, so Republicans can ignore them.
• Trump met with Prime Minister Turnbull of Australia. Apparently they got along. Trump was also caught praising the Australian health care system...
• Trump has proposed a 95% cut to the budget for the drug control office, which leads the fight against America's opioid epidemic. After campaigning on addressing the issue, it appears the best the administration can muster is a new "war on drugs", because the first one worked so well.

Day 105: Republicans will kill us all

You've probably already heard the bad news. Today was a bleak day.

• The Republican health care bill passed the House 217-213 today. This was upsetting to just about everybody who wasn't voting for it, and I hope that each and every congressperson who voted for it pays with their job. 
• Not convinced it's terrible? Let me fix that.
• It's not the end of the world yet, though. This thing has a snowflake's chance in hell of passing the Senate, which has declared that it's going to write a completely new bill from scratch. The reconciliation will be ugly.
• There was a big Republican shindig celebrating that they'd taken the first steps to shred the health insurance of at least 20 million Americans. Political veterans were describing it as the most disgusting thing they'd seen in politics.
• Note that included in the bill was a clause to deny federal medicare/medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. Paul Ryan thinks that women should just go to the dentist instead.
• Note also that congresspeople get to keep all the perks of Obamacare. Just not the rest of the country.
• There is still no Congressional Budget Office score of the thing. It's going to be nasty when we see it. Having no CBO score is NOT NORMAL. NONE OF THIS IS NORMAL.
• We will make them pay.

In other news:

• New Executive order, aimed at loosening rules for religious institutions to engage in political activity (full text). While not quite so bad as had been rumored, this is still aimed at promoting Christian supremacy and legalizing discrimination under the guise of religion.
• Pence is so proud that the White House is filled with anti-abortion leaders.
• The Senate passed the spending bill, averting a shutdown.
• Border agents are telling families seeking asylum that the US no longer accepts asylum seekers. Awful, awful, awful.

Day 104: Save our healthcare

So, it's come down to this. Upset at what a bill that pulls $1 trillion from healthcare would do to their constituents, some Republicans settled for injecting $8 billion back into the system. That's giving back less than one percent of what they're destroying. A vote is now scheduled for tomorrow.

Let me remind you of some of the features of this bill:

• Massive redistribution of wealth from poor to rich (seriously - the top 1% get at least a $40,000 tax break out of this!)
• People with pre-existing conditions can be charged vastly increased premiums. "Pre-existing conditions" includes being slightly overweight, being raped, having been born with a birth defect, having had a C-section, and many, many other conditions.
• This will make healthcare significantly more expensive for the elderly
• Cutting and burning medicare
• Reintroducing of lifetime benefit caps, including on employer-sponsored plans
• Repealing mandated coverage for items like maternity care and birth control
• Estimated at least 20 million people to lose health insurance

That last point is significant: Republican leaders don't want this bill to be scored by the Congressional Budget Office before it getting voted on, because they don't want people to know just how bad it is.

Please, make noise about this bill. This is unacceptable.

In other news:

• The two officers who shot and killed a black man, Alton Sterling, as he lay on the ground will not be charged by the Department of Justice.
• Compare and contrast this to the case where the Department of Justice prosecuted and has now convicted a woman for laughing during the Senate confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions (who now leads the DoJ). This tells you about the priorities of this fucking unconscionable administration.
• Meeting with the Palestinian leader Abbas, Trump declared that he would be the President to create peace in the Middle East. "[It is] frankly maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years." Of course, it's got to be easier than health care, because who could have imagined that health care would be so complicated?
• Carson, who now heads the department of housing and urban development, wants people in government-sponsored housing to self-flagellate for the sin of being poor.
• Trump and Putin had a phone call. Apparently they've solved the world's problems between them. I'm sure it will all work out great.
• The Senate went and approved 50-49 to undo Obama's plan to help workers save for retirement. Even Republican states were lobbying to keep this in place.
• The administration continues to gut protections for LGBTQ and pregnant people, this time undoing civil rights protections. Civil rights are hard-won, and as we are learning, so easily lost.

Day 103: Wallowing

Today was unusual, in that I didn't read anything during the day that I thought was worthy of setting aside for this roundup. I've had to rely on other aggregators to find the following.

• Trump says he'd be honored to meet Kim Jong-un, the authoritarian leader of North Korea. So far, Trump seems to admire the authoritarian leaders of Russia, North Korea, Philippines, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt and the Presidential candidate Le Pen for France. This is normalizing all of the wrong shit, and completely forfeiting the moral high ground on human rights.
• Trump called for the Senate to end the filibuster. Thankfully, the Senate has shot this idea down. For now.
• More nominations: a renewable energy skeptic to lead the renewable energy office at the Department of Energy, and an anti-LGBT fanatic to lead the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights. You can't make this shit up.

Day 102: Just another manic Monday

Trump was really on fire this weekend, and I only caught bits and pieces of it. Somebody else meticulously summed it all up beautifully. Go and read it.

• Few journalists have ever seriously pushed Trump on his obvious lies. Somebody recently tried though, and Trump abruptly terminated the interview.
• I found some details on the spending bill. I'm reasonably happy with the broad-brush strokes. I'm livid that it has to include $65 million for security for the President above and beyond his predecessor. The Washington Post has more details, including Trump's wish-list items that were ditched by Republicans to get together something that will pass (and also includes a link to the 1665 page bill).
• More appointment news: Trump has nominated an anti-contraceptive zealot to head a family planning program. This is beyond stupidity. This is actively undermining the government program.
• The Whitehouse is killing Michelle Obama's girl's education program, as well as reversing her work on nutritional programs for schools. Relax - your children are in the best hands with this administration!
• ICE detained an asylum applicant on his 18th birthday at a children's shelter. I have no words profound enough to convey my rage.
• The White House thinks it has the votes to repeal Obamacare this week. I read somewhere that they are just 6 votes short. Please make your voice heard by your representatives!